Eagles, Chicago teachers win!

So far it's been a good day for the green ream...and the red team. But if the Chicago teachers won their strike -- as appears to be the case -- then who lost?

So far one of the biggest losers in the strike was Obama. After all, the strike was essentially a face-off between two important parts of the president's base—teacher unions and neoliberal social reformers (in Chicago led by his former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel). Many of the reforms that the teachers were fighting against—the expansion of charter schools, the use of test scores to evaluate teachers, and the closure of "failing schools"—are reforms that were started by then–Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan, now Obama's Secretary of Education. In fact, the policies being contested by teachers in Chicago have largely been incorporated into federal policy under Obama's Race for The Top (RTT) initiative.

The majority of Chicago parents supported the striking teachers. It's just shows what can happen when you take a stand. Maybe some other unions will take the hint.